Otto B. de Kat (1907-1995) was a painter always distinguished by his thoughtful and considered approach. After studying at the School of Arts and Crafts in Haarlem and the Rijksacademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, he left for Paris in the late 1920s to encounter modernism. Yet he remained true to his own vision and was inspired only by the movements that suited him.

During his stay in Uccle, Belgium, near Brussels, from 1937 to 1940, he worked quietly on his oeuvre, far from the frenzy of the art world. He processed the impressions he gained while traveling or in his immediate surroundings in his studio into subdued and layered paintings, often with muted, familiar colors.

Cat deliberately skipped the wild painting movement of Cobra and the conceptual art movements after the war. His work was strongly influenced by French masters such as Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, and later by Nicolas de Staël. De Kat steadily built a body of work that combined French subtlety with Dutch modesty. The serene polders of North Holland, which he painted in the last phase of his life, are widely considered his best works and reflect the timeless and inspired power that makes his painting so unique.